The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders (1968)

http://www.mediafire.com/?koe1rj053pabwi8

From the linear notes:

"There was an article in the LA hippie paper about a confrontation between two local guru types in MacArthur Park. Their followers--by this time, there were tens of thousands of young and not-so-young people following hundreds of self-styled gurs du jour, from Mei Lyman to Charles Manson--were looking for a peace and love-style version of the old west shoutout on Main Street. Both would-be avatars were about thirty. One was swaddled head to toe in robes, diffraction gradings, body paint, beads and peacock feathers. The other one was completely naked, except for an incense-on-a-stick-thingie that he had stuck up his asshole and lit. It had gone out.
The two avatars faced each other, smiling.

'You're beautiful, man,' said one.
'No, man,' said the other. 'You're beautiful.'
'No, I'm not,' came the reply. 'You're beautiful.'
'No, brother. You're the one who's beautiful.'
'I think I'm going to throw up,' said one of the cops.

Doomed as doomed can be."
-Peter Stampfel

Latin Playboys- Dose

http://www.mediafire.com/?nrcaenr7cbwbzpz

You may have heard of Los Lobos, who hail as California's longest-lasting full rock outfit. They're good and all, but their recent Disney cd makes most people reach for one of those airplane barf bags preeeeeetty fast.

But back in 1999, they put out a second album under a side-project pseudonym Latin Playboys (which has to be one of the coolest band names ever. Do you notice that i get fetishistic about names? I can never come up with a cool name!). The legend has it that Dose was recorded entirely with instruments bought from thrift stores, and it shows. The guitars are wonky and out of tune, and the instruments sound terrible; however, since Los Lobos are practically the most talented musicians who have ever walked the face of the earth, the playing is incredibly solid and it comes across as a revelation.

It turned a lot of Lobos fans off since it's a) abrasive as all getout and b) not really a group of songs as much as weird sketches. It almost sounds like an early Ween record, but with a huge Mexican influence. For me, the rough aesthetics plus the Mexican sabor plus the inconsistency makes this one of my favorite early Summer records.

I first heard this at a house party in Knoxville and realized--in an exaggerated epiphany-- that the music i had been listening to was really lame, and that there was tons of incredible music i hadn't discovered yet. 

The Golden Fleece

http://www.mediafire.com/?x3f7e7wds5eu7u4

Of all the albums I have posted so far, this is probably the most mysterious. 
The Golden Fleece is songs from two Georgian ethnic enclaves, Abkhazia and Muslim Adzharia. The music is difficult to describe, oscillating between major and minor keys, instrumentation, and vocal styling. Some of it is an all out Vocal Belt-Fest (a'la American gospel music), and then dips into harmonic and drone-based fiddling. Some of it sounds like it could be guitar tracks from Animal Collective or Devandra Barnhart songs. 

Tame Impala- Innerspeaker

http://www.mediafire.com/?iyvg4t0ejin

Whenever there is a lot of hype around an album, it certainly falls into the "Hipper-than-thou" category, and therefore makes me exercise extreme caution. This is multiplied 10x when Pitchfork gives it a raving review (which for Pitchfork, means more than 6 out of 10. Bastards).

I looked into Innerspeaker based on the recommendation of a good friend, and i have to say: Pretty-Damn-Awesome.

The thing that made me really excited was a line that eMusic used to describe it: "It sounds like what the Beatles would have sounded like if they were around long enough to hear Yes." When the cd starts up rightaway, i thought, "Holy crap, they got John Lennon to sing on it!"

Fans of either George Harrison or John Lennon might get really wistful to hear this MetaBeatles band, and Innerspeaker does sound like it could have come out of that time period. It's really weird in that way.

Highly, highly recommended. Listen with earphones!!